Our - and other trade show organizers' - exhibitors are regularly bothered by inquiries from companies/publishers with addresses in, among other places, Sweden, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, and Mexico, offering inclusion and/or advertising in their "trade show guides" on the internet and/or the opportunity to purchase access to a list of the trade show's visitors.
AKKC strongly distances itself from these companies/publishers, as they imply in their materials that they have a close collaboration with us (-and other trade show organizers). This is not correct.
AKKC has never entered into agreements with these companies/publishers and has never provided exhibitors' names, addresses, etc. to them. They may have obtained the names from lists of trade show exhibitors, which can be found on, for example, the trade show's website. However, these lists generally only contain exhibitors' general contact information - not direct contacts, etc.
The inquiries from the relevant companies/publishers have an exceptionally complex content, where the prices for the services (inclusions) they offer are well hidden and extremely opaque. Therefore, several of our exhibitors have simply signed the contract sent to them without really knowing what they are committing to pay. We have examples of exhibitors who have committed to pay more than DKK 20,000 over three years for a insignificant and likely completely worthless inclusion.
On several occasions, we have received inquiries from exhibitors who have signed a contract and subsequently received an invoice. We have advised them to simply discard the invoice and subsequent reminders. We hear from the involved exhibitors that they receive a reminder letter approximately once a quarter, and this can go on for years. We have never heard of the publishers contacting the exhibitor in person, demanding payment for the unpaid invoice. Probably because the publishers operate on the edge of good marketing practices.
Aalborg Congress & Culture Center strongly distances itself from the described companies/publishers and their methods - beware!